Man wrongfully imprisoned for 39 YEARS is freed after witness lie

INJUSTICE: Ricky Jackson was wrongfully imprisoned for 39 years [AP/GETTY]

Ricky Jackson, 57, will be a free man on Friday after 39 years wrongfully imprisoned for murder.

Eddie Vernon, who was 12 in 1975, lied to authorities and said Jackson and two other men killed a money-order collector at a Cleveland grocery store.

Mr Jackson broke into loud sobs as all charges were dropped.

"The state concedes the obvious," Cuyahoga County Prosecutor Timothy McGinty said.

"I can't believe this is over," Mr Jackson said.

“I can't believe this is over”

Ricky Jackson

When someone called his family he shouted into the phone: "I'm coming home. I'm coming home. Be here to get me Friday, please. Let everybody know."

This week, Mr Vernon, now 53, admitted he had falsified his story after confessing to a pastor that he was in fact on a school bus at the time of the killing – something several witnesses have confirmed.

He told a judge he based his story on information fed to him from police and a friend.

"All the information was fed to me," Mr Vernon said. "I don't have any knowledge about what happened at the scene of the crime."

Later he said, "Everything was a lie. They were all lies.''

There was no other evidence to link Mr Jackson to the crime.

Brothers Wiley and Ronnie Bridgeman were also imprisoned – Wiley is still behind bars and Ronnie served 29 years.

The attorneys representing them are expected to ask for the charges to be dropped.

A spokesman for Mr McGinty's office said it does not see bringing any charges against Vernon.